Live Thread: Cavs vs. Hawks (Pre-Season)

In the new TNT spot that dropped today, the network went heavy on the metaphors as they depicted LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love (with an assist from comedian Mike Epps and a camel) wandering through the desert on an epic quest to end the championship drought in the ‘Land. Tonight, that quest begins (somewhat) in earnest as the Cavs kick off the pre-season with a “home” game in Cincinnati against last year’s ECF opponent Atlanta Hawks.

Tip off is at 7:00 pm (EST) at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Ohio and NBATV, and broadcast on WTAM 1100 AM.

Sadly, we’ll have to wait a bit to see two of the three title-seekers above in game action, as neither Kyrie nor Kevin made the two day journey to Xavier and Philadelphia to play the Sixers. And, while there is no clear timetable for the return of Moses Cleveland, there are optimistic reports that KLove will start full practices as soon as this weekend, and could be in the starting lineup for opening night. In the meantime, LeBron may just have to carry the load on his own… even though he says otherwise.

So, with the Cavs down three starters (including Iman Shumpert) and their MIA backup PF (he who must not be named… or depicted), the team reportedly will go with this starting lineup:

PG – Mo Williams, SG – J.R. Smith, SF – LeBron James, PF – James Jones, C – Timofey Mozgov

As with the Wine & Gold Scrimmage on Monday, we will likely get a heavy dose of all of the young, athletic camp invitees who are all in a full-on scrum for the last seat on the bench (and possibly the 14th as well due to injuries and the holdout). So, get ready to see if guys like Quinn Cook, Austin Daye, Jared Cunningham, D.J. Stephens, Nick Minnerath and Michael Dunigan can do enough to nail their audition to wear a suit and take a lot of bus rides to Canton (or even unseat second-year man Smokin Joe Harris).

On the Hawks side of the ball, there a couple of new faces the Cavs will see, including former Spur big man, Tiago Splitter, and former Knicks swing man, Tim Hardaway, Jr. Gone is former defensive specialist, DeMarre Carroll (Raptors), and it remains to be seen if any of the Hawks’ injured rotation players (Kyle Korver, Thabo Sefalosha and Shelvin Mack) will be able to participate in tonight’s action. Their starting lineup, though, is listed as:

PG – Jeff Teague, SG – Kyle Korver, SF – Tim Hardaway Jr., PF – Paul Millsap, C – Al Horford

If Korver does suit up, it will mean his first action on the court this season could possibly be against the man who ended his season last year… Delly. And, even though it’s just a pre-season matchup, there’s at least a decent chance that there will be plenty of friction between these two teams leftover from their playoff matchup.

It’s all worthy of hype, not just from the creative folks at TNT, but also from our friends at Nike. Not to be outdone by the Quest spot, the swooshy ones dropped this ad about The Akronite: LeBron James, as read by poet and playwrite, Lemon Anderson, during the LEBRON XIII launch event in Akron on September 27, 2015. Enjoy… and GO CAVS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl2Pv44kJJ0&feature=youtu.be